Court challenge by GAA star who killed father

A former Tyrone GAA star jailed for shooting dead his father is taking legal action over alleged failures to provide medical treatment for his delusional disorder.

Lawyers for Sean Hackett claim prison authorities have not complied with a court recommendation that he should receive appropriate psychotherapy.

Hackett, 21, is currently serving a minimum seven-year sentence for the manslaughter of his father Aloysius in January 2013.

A jury found him guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility after acquitting him of murder.

Aloysius Hackett, a former chairman of St Macartan’s GAC in Augher, was shot twice in the head on the driveway of the family home on the Aghindarrah Road near Augher, Co Tyrone.

His son Sean admitted carrying out the shooting but consistently denied murder.

At his trial it was set out how he had suffered depression in the preceding months. Up to five psychiatrists backed the view that Hackett was in a delusional state of mind when he carried out the killing at the age of 18.

Dr Carine Minne, who is based at the high security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, told the court Hackett had been harbouring a secret need to kill either of his parents. According to Dr Minne he is suffering from one of the purest forms of delusional disorder she has ever encountered – with no other case like it in Northern Ireland. Hackett remains a suicide and homicide risk while he remains untreated, the court heard.